Hearing Loss & RA - is there a connection?

Looking for information or other folks’ experiences of this.

I’ve known for some years that my hearing was no longer 100% and during the Covid Pandemic mask wearing made it very apparent that I rely on watching people’s mouths more than I realised to follow what is being said.
My poor daughter, who is my Carer when I am very unwell and shares a house with me , has to (on a daily basis) repeat what she has just said as I didn’t catch it or couldn’t work out a couple of key words. Similarly the tv and radio are turned up higher than they used to be for me to follow a story and I have some difficulty understanding what my 4 grandchildren under 6 years old have said often asking an older child what their younger sibling has just said!

I’m now 65 but this started during my mid to late 50’s.
Eventually, I asked to be referred to Audiology for a Hearing Assessment and had an appointment in September just gone. This established that I have a moderate hearing loss and require Hearing Aids.

My question is ‘is there a connection with RA itself or any of the older RA drugs? I’m riddled with RA and am more than 40 years into this ‘experience’. I have considerable jaw and neck inflammation and there is no family history of hearing loss. The females in my family have all lived into their 90’s with no hearing loss.

I previously lost my eyesight to steroid induced cataracts in my early 40’s but had those removed and consequently have perfect distance eyesight from having corrective lenses inserted when the cataracts were removed.

Now it could be that a misspent youth and rock and roll lifestyle in my teens and 20’s - lots of very loud live bands and working in pubs and clubs and on live shows - had an impact but I’m sure that I remember reading about someone developing tinnitus then hearing loss later from either the inflammation or a particular RA drug!

Any information whether factual studies or experiential reports would be most gratefully received 😀

Go Well,
C xx